Yesterday we had the honour of hosting my beautiful nieces' birthday party. Just a casual affair in the backyard with barbaque and cake. The weather was great and the grass was soft and green, begging to be played on. So with that in mind I thought I'll bring out the 'giant scrunchie' and let the kids explore playing with it. I didn't tell them that it was for playing Elastics I just handed it over to see what they would do. The results were awesome and creative.
At first the kids decided to play reindeers and Santa. My niece took the lead as Rudolf and instructed the others to be reindeers and Santa at the end. This occupied them for around 15 minutes, running around the garden shouting out "faster, faster!" At one point they decided to be horses, galloping rather than trotting around while making horse noises.
It seems the scrunchie also lends itself quite nicely to a game of tug-o-war, which the kids found amusing. At first I thought they were fighting over it but then I noticing them laughing and smiling so I figured it was a game instead.
The last of the games that the kids played this day was a simple game of tumbling and jumping over the rope. My daughter loved challenging herself by doing sommersaults over the elastic. The others enjoyed jumping over it or jumping into it. There was also some crawling under it which was fun too.
It's amazing to watch children be so inventive with just a simple piece of elastic. Maybe sometimes more is less even with kids' toys and equipment. Either way I know that there must be more ways to play with this giant scrunchie and that we will have many more days of fun with it. We might even use it for what it was originally made for and that being Elastics.
Have you made one yet? See my DIY sewing tutorial here and join in the fun!
A while ago I introduced my daughter to the classic schoolyard game of Elastics. While I taught her some basic moves like jumping in and out of the loop, we haven't played the official version of the game yet as she is only 3 years old and not ready for more complicated moves. She also found it more interesting to make her own moves, doing somersaults over the elastic or crawling under it, so I thought I'd just let her go with that and see how creative she could get.
If you are not familiar with the game Elastics and are wondering what it is, Elastics a classic schoolyard game that is often played by girls. It is played using a long elastic band that has the ends tied together forming a big loop. Two players stand in the middle of the elastic loop and hold it around their ankles, standing opposite each other wide enough that the elastic hold straight but still able to further stretch. A third player then jumps in a particular pattern in and out of the loop, sometimes over it, sometimes crossing it over and other times deliberately stepping on it. Once the player jumping makes a mistake, for example, either getting tangled in the elastic or not jumping over it correctly, then that player takes an end and the next has a turn to jump. Often the jumping actions are accompanied by rhymes or songs. As you complete the pattern at the first level, which is ankles, the elastic is then hitched up to knees, then under bums, hips, waist, underarms, neck and sky. As a kid I was only ever good enough to jump as high as waist.
When I first introduced my little one to the game I just simply got a long piece of elastic and tied it at the ends. It was a thin piece of elastic, around a quarter of an inch or 0.5cm and I found it hurt their skin a little when they would run into it stretching it to full capacity. It was also a little difficult to see when jumping on concrete surfaces as the white of the elastic blended a little with the colour of the concrete. So with this in mind I thought about how I could make the elastic more colourful and 'softer' for the children to play with After some thought I came up with the idea of turning the elastic into a giant scrunchie, an easy way to make the elastic more colourful, thicker and a bit softer for the kids. Below are instructions so you too can make your own Elastics scrunchie
What you will need
Fabric/s non-stretch
Scissors
Sewing machine
Rotary cutter
Quilters ruler
Cutting board
Sewing thread
Quarter inch thick elastic
Safety pins x2
First cut a long piece of elastic measuring around 14.8 feet. Doesn't matter if it is larger but I wouldn't recommend smaller. Once you have cut your piece then get someone to help you stretch it as far as it goes and then remeasure it. You need your fabric to be just a bit longer than the elastic at full stretch.
Once you have those figures, cut out your fabric at 3 inches wide and in pieces that add to your required length plus seam allowances. So if you are using various fabrics and have pieces say 3inch wide and 10 inches long, then cut your length at 10.5 inches long as you need to add half an inch to every piece to accommodate for an 1/4 inch seam on either side.
Once you have done that simply sew the ends together, right sides facing. If you are using different coloured fabrics don't forget to have the two end pieces different colours so that you don't have two of the same when you join them at the end.
After you have sewn the pieces all together, fold over the 3 inch width and sew an 1/8 of an inch from the edge. See photo below.
Once you have done that you should have a long 1.5 inch wide and 17.8 feet long snake of a thing. Unfortunately that was the end of the easy part of this project, now comes the part where you have to turn it all inside out! In order to do that get hold of a safety pin that is not going to open as you thread it through. I used one that is for baby cloth nappies to make sure it wouldn't open. See photo below.
With a bit of fiddling, get the pin to go through the tube by scrunching the fabric over it with your thumbs. Here is a quick YouTube video I found that shows you how to do it. This is not my video so I can't take credit for it, but I still don't know how to load videos on my blog so sorry.
Once you have conquered the turning of the giant scrunchie, you then need to thread the elastic through. Take two safety pins now. Using one of the safety pins, attach one end of the elastic to one end of the tube, securing it so that it doesn't go into the tube while you push the other end through. With the other end, hook the other safety pin onto the end of it and push it through the tube like you did before. Don't worry this time it is easier!
After that is finished, take both end of the elastic, and using the sewing machine and a zig zag stitch, sew the pieces together. Push one fabric end into the other and the raw edge of that side under and simply sew the opening shut using a straight stitch. See photo below.
And there you have it, your very own soft and scrunchie elastic to play with! Or perhaps you've just made the world's biggest scrunchie ready for the Guinness Book of World Records?
Next time I'll have to post about playing Elastics and other games that your kids can play with their giant scrunchie!
